Churning out new ideas for your next content piece has never been easy. Be it your next blog post, newsletter or a social media post, you must have experienced reaching a deadlock. And even if you do have ideas, you don’t know whether it will appeal to your audience or not. I’m sure you already know traditional ways of finding out new ideas for your next content piece. But have you considered generating content ideas using Reddit?

Before we proceed, let’s familiarize ourselves with the platform, as it is not as talked about as the other social channels like Facebook or Twitter.

What is Reddit?

With 330 million users, Reddit goes by the slogan, “the front page of the internet”. If you consider the internet as a big, fat newspaper, Reddit should be the front page carrying the latest headlines. It has now surpassed Facebook to become the third most popular site in the US.

Reddit is a place where communities converge. It’s a hub for forums in which people discuss about anything under the sun, be it news, politics, sports. Sharing forms the foundation of Reddit, where people share news pieces, articles, memes, gifs, videos and more. Stories surface on Reddit even before they appear elsewhere.

You might get slightly puzzled if you open the home page of Reddit. All you’ll see is a list of posts. This is a collection of hot topics on the site and people are talking about them the most. These trending topics are pulled out of something known as a ‘subreddit’.

Which brings us to the next question. What are subreddits?

Subreddits are communities revolving around a specific topic. One subreddit can be perceived as a themed forum that strictly talks about a specific subject, be it movies, art, sports, memes. r/politics, r/technology, r/movies are typical subreddits. They can get quirky and unconventional like r/ShowerThoughts.

The content that is posted on these subreddits is upvoted or downvoted by people. The ones that have enough number of votes (say more than a thousand) make their way to the first page.

The whole game revolves around what’s popular and what’s not. Check out this question that’s trending on the front page of Reddit.

It’s not just the question, but the answers and comments are also voted up or down. Here’s the answer to the above question that received maximum votes and thus made it to the top.

Why you should use Reddit? After all, there are so many other places where you can find what you’re looking for – Facebook groups, Quora answers and thousands of other forums and communities. Then what

We mentioned earlier that Reddit has surpassed Facebook to become the 3rd most popular website in the US. But the story doesn’t end here. It is also more engaging. Alexa has observed that the average user spends 15 minutes 47 seconds on Reddit per day while this value stands at just 11 minutes on Facebook.

Also, you can find a subreddit dedicated to any topic that you can think of. Reddit comprises of a whopping 1.2 million subreddits that revolve around the most common to the most elusive topics in the world.

Now, that you’re convinced why you should be discovering content ideas using Reddit, we move on to how you should do so.

Tap into the power of subreddits

You will find myriad of subreddits related to the area of your expertise. You first need to narrow down the specific topic you want to create your content around. This gives you myriad of options to discover content ideas using Reddit.

Type in the broad topic in the search box and you will get a long list of subreddits where people hold discussions around it. These subreddits will let you know about the trends related to your industry and also the pain points around your topic of interest.

Let’s pick up a topic, say, “content marketing”. I searched for this term on Reddit and this is what I got.

The ones that were relevant to me were the following:-

r/ContentMarketing

r/content_marketing

r/digital_marketing

r/social media

r/contentmarketingtips

On exploring, you’ll find hot topics within the industry, questions people are asking and the answers which you can dive into to discover irresistible content ideas using Reddit.

Search within subreddits

Once you’ve opened a subreddit, the next step is to use the search function to dig deeper. This is where you get a little specific. You can use a number of search terms that revolve around questions such as “How can I”, “How should you”, “What is” etc. To know the challenges around the particular topic, you can use search terms like “challenges”, “struggles” or “Can you help?”.

I decided to explore possible topics around content marketing. I used the search term “tips” within r/content_marketing. These are the results I got –

I could spin out content on topics like –

7 content marketing tips for my startup

6 Tips To Use Storytelling in marketing

How to attract your first 100 customers?

These are just a few examples. Imagine how many more topics you can get if you use more such search terms utilizing other subreddits on ‘content marketing’.

Crowdsource

Reddit is great for research. To really tap into the power of Reddit, follow the right people and the subreddits relevant to your industry. You can post your questions for the people you follow or to the relevant subreddits, inviting followers to give in their answers.

The Reddit community calls this AMA or ‘Ask Me Anything’. These are crowdsourced questions that one can get answers to from industry experts. You can also tune into the questions others have asked to know what are the pain points and challenges that people are facing.

Tune into the conversations

Now that you’ve discovered the right subreddits and the struggles/challenges that your community is facing, it’s time to tune into the conversation to discover new content ideas using Reddit. Dig deeper into the questions asked in the respective forums and research around the inputs given by experts. This way, you get more material for the topic that you want to create your content around.

As an example, I opened a discussion around the question “How to use Instagram for PR”. I found that the first post was quite elaborate, almost like a micro-article that had touched upon various sub-topics that I could include in an article about this topic. That would make my job super easy.

Creating the final output

The final and the most vital step is to create the content piece. You can rephrase the questions to make a catchy title, for instance, “Instagram For PR : All You Need To Know”. Mine out the subtopics from the answers given by other people in the conversation thread.

If you want to further use this one content idea to spin out more pieces, consider upcycling. Upcycling simply means taking one content piece and giving it another form. For instance, if you create a blog post on this topic, you can consider weaving a newsletter series, a YouTube “How-To” video or social media posts.

Now, that you’ve successfully created your content, do not forget to give back to the Reddit community. Share the post in the thread from where you got the idea from. You can even personally thank the person who gave you the idea and share the final content piece with them.

Churning out content ideas using Reddit is indeed a smart option if used correctly. Not only that, Reddit helps you stay up-to-date with the burning trends and challenges within your industry. It’s vital to stay informed to know what content will resonate with your target audience. So, what are you waiting for? Dive into Reddit for your next content piece right now.

Thanks for reading the blog. If you are a creator and want more insights related to the performance of your videos. Reach us at 8527863094 or send in your queries at marketing@vidooly.com

​Niharika Datta is a Content Writer at Vidooly. She started her career as a Human Resource professional but is now pursuing her love for writing. Though she writes about a myriad of ideas, her personal favourite is writing about the latest trends in the content and digital marketing world. An ambivert by nature, she likes to grab a snack with a warm cup of coffee in the company of a good book or a close friend.